04 March 2006

Tebbit Slams Derry And McGuinness

NORMAN TEBBIT, former top hatchet man in the Thatcher cabinet, has claimed both Derry city and one of its most famous sons - Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness - have glorified terrorism. Mr. Tebbit - a onetime confidante of ex-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher --was in Brighton's Grand Hotel when it was bombed by the IRA in 1984. His wife Margaret was paralysed in the bombing.

This week, at Westminster, during the Lords debate on the government's Terrorism Bill, the 74-year-old peer contrasted the respective effects of Islamic and " homegrown Northern Irish terrorism." In his contribution to the discussion, Mr. Tebbit said he had "long been concerned that it has seemed impossible to take proceedings" against leading Irish republicans such as Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams who he accused of "glorifying terrorism".

"We have all seen those two gentlemen standing at military-style funerals with hooded gunmen firing in celebration of the terrorist," he said. "If that is not glorification of terrorism, it would be rather difficult to define what is."

Turning to plans to include "grossly offensive" placards in the legislation, Mr. Tebbit asked: "What about the murals on the walls of Belfast and Londonderry which glorify both republican and loyalist terrorism? "Would the creators of those murals be likely to be found guilty of glorifying terrorism? Would it make any difference to the likelihood of their prosecution and conviction?"